fevnut's blog: fevnut's musings special: A tribute to Ian Hardman

fevnut's musings

Ian Hardman: fevnut’s tribute

Championship Grand Final Winner: 2011

fevnut wants to thank Ian Hardman for his wonderful contribution to Fev over the last ten years. He will be an absolutely huge miss next year. Of the 1,081 players who have played for Rovers, only 47 did so for ten or more years and in the summer era there have only been two others (Stuart Dickens and Steve Dooler).

For us, Ian’s quality and determination are summed up by the 2016 season. Before the season began, those of us present at the ceremony when Jon Sharp awarded players their shirts and revealed the squad numbers could not fail to see how bitterly disappointed Ian was when the #1 shirt was handed to loanee, Danny Craven, and Ian was handed the #15 shirt.

In similar circumstances many players would have become despondent and looked to progress their career elsewhere. But not Ian! In the first game of the season he duly took his place on the bench and when he came on put in a tremendous performance, proving the injustice of his squad number. In the second game Jon Sharp started with him back in his usual fullback position and he went on to be in the starting line-up in 29 of the 32 matches that year, having proved (yet again) what a valuable member of the team he was.

We were delighted to contribute to Ian's Testimonial year by working with him to put his testimonial brochure together. That's how we got hold of the photo of Ian as a baby. Have you ever seen a baby photo that is so instantly recognisable?

When you look at it Ian’s record it is quite amazing. Of the aforementioned 1,081 players who have appeared for Rovers first team Ian comes:

1) 3rd on the list of top try scorers with 131 tries (only Don Fox and John Newlove having scored more)

2) 13th on the list of top points scorers with 827 points

3) 17th on the list of top goal scorers with 152 goals (and he only kicked goals in the last two years!)

4) 20th on the list of top try rates with a try rate of 45% (131 tries in 288 appearances)

5) 25th on the list of top appearances made with 288.

So here we present his Fev career stats in the knowledge that he will always be remembered as a great servant of Featherstone Rovers. Ian, we are going to really miss you!